JPrice lO Cents. 
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WHY VOTE AT ALL 



IN '72? 




thing can be imagined more dastardly than the disposition 

men who despair of their country. They make me think 

graceless son, after supporting a little while the languid 

A his sick mother, toss her back upon the bed and say, ' She 

die, and why then should I give myself any trouble about 




NEW YORK: 

PRINTED FOR TIIE AUTHOR. 

G. P. PUTNAM & SONS, 
1872. 



Class 
Book, 




Ml 



T^i 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2010 with funding from 
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-7* 



WHY VOTE AT ALL 



IN '72? 




" Nothing can be imagined more dastardly than the disposition 
of those men who despair of their country. They make me think 
I see a graceless son, after supporting a little while the languid 
head of his sick mother, toss her back upon the bed and say, ' She 
will die, and why then should I give myself any trouble about 
her ? ' " 





NEW YOEE: 

PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR. 

G. P. PUTNAM & SONS, 

1872. 



i 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by 

G. P. PUTNAM & SONS, 
In the- Office of the Librarian of Congress, at "Washington. 



LANGE, LllTLE & TIlLLMAN, PRINTERS, 1C8 "SVoOSTER St., N. Y. 



N 
4 



DEDICATION. 

To the " Business men of New York? comprising 
more than half the voting population, who created this 
great city ; and who, if they please, may give it an hon- 
est, efficient government, this pamphlet is dedicated, with 
sent ments of high respect and veneration, by 

The Author. 



PREFACE. 

It has become the fashion, of late, among respect- 
able people, in New York City, to declare that we 
are ruled by knaves, because the majority of tJie 
people are corrupt; and this declaration often comes, 
with sad and earnest tones, from the lips of good 
and truthful men. " The majority of the people 
corrupt ! " ' Think of that impeachment, New 
Yorker ! 

Do the sages, who so often repeat this assertion, 
seriously reflect whither it leads ? Perhaps not ! 

But if, [when weighed in the scales of Equity 
and Truth] the assertion be found incorrect in fact, 
the thought naturally arises : Why, then, do good 
men so constantly think it, and say it ? 

May it not be because of that habit of human 
nature which leads men continually to suggest plausi- 
ble excuses for conscious neglect of duty? As the 
mind of a Procrastinator is lulled to insidious ease 
by the thought : " Oh, it will do as well to-morrow," 
so, may not the good men of New, York be fatally lul- 
ling their consciences to rest, by thus shifting over, 



6 PREFACE. 

upon an imagined majority of bad citizens, the pub- 
lic crime, which is in truth their own ? 

Let us fairly investigate the causes ; and may 
Heaven, ever on the side of right, lead us to the 
Truth. Thus, lifted out of old ruts of thought, the 
minds of the people will come at once to the public 
disease, and the real remedy may then be sought. 

For be sure, when conviction once settles on the 
public heart, and the great honest mass of the Peo- 
ple know where the trouble actually lies, then the 
mighty rush of Reform, will be like the leap of a 
chip into the foam of Niagara. There will be no 
stopping it, half way down ! 

New Yokk, July, 1872. 



WHY VOTE AT ALL 

IN !721 



After teaching of our duty to God, it is proper to teach, that 
which we owe to our Country. For our Country is, as it were, a 
secondary god, and the first and greatest parent. It is to be pre- 
ferred to Parents, Wives, Children, Friends, and all things, God 
only excepted. And if our Country perishes, it is as impossible 
to save an Individual as to preserve one of the fingers of a morti- 
fied hand." — Hierocles.* 



The better to comprehend our Social and Political 
status, by contrast, the reader is invited to a rapid sur- 
vey of the past two-and-a-half centuries. The story is 
short, simple, instructive ! 

Let the Record be divided into three eras : 

Era of 1614, . . First settlement of New York. 



Era of 1776, 

Era of 1872, 



Birth of the Government. 
The present time. 



* Of his own suggestions, the writer of this pamphlet expects 
— what is deserved — an indifferent perusal, or may be none at all. 
But, for these golden sentences quoted, in large type, these Voices 
from the Illustrious Dead, he prays they may be graven on the 
minds of New Yorkers, by indelible Memory. The dead can have 
no ill designs upon us, my countrymen. 



8 WHY VOTE AT ALL ? 

ERA OF 1614: 

The New Yorker, of to-day, can hardly picture to 
himself the scene, on this spot, at the epoch of 1614. 
Instead of these broad avenues, we now see, lined with 
stately palaces of marble, stone, and iron — the narrow 
path of the Indian hunter, over-arched with tangled fol- 
iage, wound along through the woods, and crossed over 
hills and little streams. The lively squirrel darted among 
the branches, deer bounded in the forest, and birds whis- 
tled their merry songs all day long in the trees. We 
may imagine picturesque groups of wigwams, nestled in 
foliage on the hillsides, looking down upon the broad 
and silent Hudson ; with here and there a bark-canoe, 
darting out from some shady inlet to fish or to paddle oh 
the water. All was nature ! rude, wild, undressed nature ! 

On this spot our forefathers planted themselves, and 
here they established a home in the New World ! 

We may imagine their first political gathering, held 
beneath the sheltering branches of some majestic oak. 
There the whole community would meet, for public de- 
liberation. Every adult citizen would be a self-elected 
" representative " to this primeval Congress. We can- 
not conceive of any man being absent, save from unre- 
lenting sickness. 

The "ballot" was a cherished boon then, Reader. 
Please take note of this, and let us pass on to the epoch 
of 1776. 



ERA OF 1776: 

More than a century and a half had passed away, 
since our forefathers, landing on the coast, had e ...•_.. 



WHY VOTE AT ALL? 9 

their primitive huts within sound of the splashing of the 
waves. But the pioneer arm had wrought a mighty 
change, inland from the sea. Forests had been levelled 
— roadways cut — bridges built — villages, towns, and 
cities created in the midst of lonely solitudes. Civiliz- 
ation had spread abroad — on the East, to Cape Cod and 
Penobscot Bay — on the North, to the St. Lawrence and 
the great inland lakes — on the West, to the Ohio and 
Alleghany mountains — on the South, to the Floridas and 
the Gulf of Mexico. 

That primitive Congress, held beneath an oak, had 
given way to numerous elective bodies, in convenient 
towns and cities, where the peoples' representatives as- 
sembled, to protest against rude injustice on the part of 
mother England. The patriots' "humble petition," 
spurned at the British court, had given place to angry 
denunciation, and violent opposition. The Royal troops 
had fired on the people — they, by the voice of Congress, 
had severed political ties which bound them to England 
—and thus opens the epoch of 1776. 

The storm of war, passing over the Atlantic from 
the old world, presently swept along the American 
shores. Its smoky clouds hovered over hitherto peace- 
ful villages and towns. The roar of cannon, and the 
rattle of musketry echoed on the hill-tops, and along 
the valleys of the New World, frightening the eagle 
from his tree-top, and the timid deer from his quiet sleep 
beside the lake. 

The voice of the people,' raised in a thousand town- 
ships, summoned bone and sinew to the front, and the 
fairest talent to the " Continental Congress." And what 
was all this about ? The " ballot " — the ballot and its 
God-given privileges. Where the man who staid away 



10 WHY VOTE AT ALL ? 

from political duty at the epoch of " seventy-six ? " The 
ballot was a cherished boon then, Reader. Please take 
note of this, and let us pass on to the epoch of 1872. 

" The House of Commons ought to be the 
people in one room." * 



ERA OF 1872: 



What a mighty change is here ! Cast your eye abroad, 
Reader. The native Indian has passed away. He dwells 
with the " Great Spirit," in the hunting-grounds beyond 
the sky. Civilization inhabits the North-East and the 
South- West. Great cities, inland, dot the hill-sides, the 
valleys and the plains. The iron-horse runs his seven- 
days journey from Atlantic to Pacific — sweeping the 
snows of the Sierras and the leaves of the Alleghanies. 
The merchant prince eats his Sunday dinner at home in 
New York, to-day, and dines next Sunday with his son 
in the Golden City. Bridges of wire span the chasms 
of Niagara. Mercantile navies enliven rivers, lakes and 
seas. Electric-sparks dart along the bed of old Atlantic, 
saluting its shells, its fishes and its silent caves — flash- 
ing the word of intelligence from continent to conti- 
nent. Enchantment is abroad — and the glories of the 
present outrival the fancies of Arabian tales. 

Look at New York, Reader ! Where are the wind- 
ing-paths of the Indian-hunter now ? Where the wig- 
wam, and the bark-canoe? Gone with the dead and 
forgotten past. And, in their place, has arisen the city 
of merchants. To-day its local news is bulletined to 

* Burgh's Political Disquisitions, vol. 2, p. 37. 



WHY VOTE AT ALL? 11 

the World. New York is the merchant's home. He 
built it, and fashioned it, and made it what it is. Trade 
and Commerce feed its people, from the news-boy to 
the millionaire. Out from its warehouses, manufactories, 
and stores, pour the golden streams of material life. , 
Walk along the spinal cord of the city — Broadway — 
and up and down its great arteries, East and West, and 
tell us, Reader, is the voice of Business-men potential ? 
Let them but speak their wish, and it is law. 

And what have they done, for the age, and hu- 
manity ? 

They have opened the city's arms to the persecuted 
of every clime. 

They have lifted the emigrant from foreign political 
slavery to American citizenship. 

They have educated the ignorant, gratis. 

They have doubled the wages of labor. 

They have frowned down tyranny, everywhere. 

They have poured out golden charity, in streams. 

They have written the noun "merchant" in the vo- 
cabulary of " Princes." 

They have spread our flag on every sea. 

They have cherished Freedom, Religion and the 
Arts. 

•They have peacefully conquered the friendship of 
the World. 

But the ballot, Reader, the ballot ! How about the 
ballot in seventy-two ? 

" The highest honor that can be attained by 
any man, is that which is voluntarily conferred 
on him by his countrymen ; and the greatest 
good he can do, as well as the most accept- 



12 WHY VOTE AT ALL? 

able to God, is that which he does to his coun- 
try." * 

POLITICAL NEW YORK IN 1872. 

We are brought face to face with the political pres- 
ent. Let it be examined from the standpoint of to-day. 
It is asserted : 

First : That our Executive is venal. 

Second : That our Legislature is bought with money 
every year. 

Third: That our Judiciary is corrupted to the core. 

Fourth : That the Treasury is robbed of millions. 

Fifth : That we are governed by a foreign-rabble. 

Sixth : That reform is hopeless. 

The first and last of these, time will prove unfounded. 

But let us not wrangle about the truth of these as- 
sertions. Some believe them less than truth. Others 
think them partly true. No man declares them false in 
whole. 

It is not the purpose of this pamphlet to make indi- 
vidual charges against any man or any party. Corrupt 
rulers and corrupt parties both spring from the people, 
and could not exist without the majority's consent, ac- 
tive or passive. 

" I resolve to speak ill of no man whatever, 
not even in a matter of truth ; but rather by 
some means excuse the faults I hear charged 
upon others, and, upon proper occasions, speak 
all the good I know of everybody." — Dr. 
Franklin.'] 

* Machiavel. f Works of : By Jared Sparks, vol. 1, p. 105, 



WHY VOTE AT ALL? 13 

That the people have elected bad representatives is 
known at home, and noted abroad. And we have suf- 
fered at home and abroad for the act. How have we suf- 
fered at home, Reader ? Let the working classes testify. 
It is they who suffer most : 
First : Bankrupt Savings-Banks — robbing the widow 

of her mite, and the poor man of his savings. 
Second : A Corrupt Judiciary. An honest citizen, af- 
ter the labor of the day, escorts his wife or sweet- 
heart abroad in the evening. She is insulted in a 
car, or on the street. He resents it. The ruffian 
murders him on the spot. A thrill of horror runs 
through the public. But the courts may be bought 
with money, and there is no redress. Whose turn 
comes next, citizens ? 
Third: Increased Taxation: The landlord adds 
the additional tax to the rent. Result : the poor 
man pays $25 a month, instead of $12, and the money 
is stolen by the men he elects. 

It is amusing to hear owners of property talk about 
the taxes they pay. As if they paid the taxes. What 
are the facts ? When taxes increase, the owner adds 
the tax to the rent. Thus the renter appears to 
pay it. But he does not, in fact — for he adds the in- 
creased rent to the price of his goods. Thus they who 
buy the commodity pay the taxes — in other words, the 
people. This is why all the people (property-holders or 
not), should have the power to vote. 

Fourth : City debt doubled. The increased interest 
must be paid. How is it done ? Store-rents go up— 
fuel and provisions double — taxes ditto. The laborer 
pays two prices for coal, flour, meat, potatoes, cloth- 



14 WHY VOTE AT ALL ? 

ing- and rent. And the money builds palaces, gardens, 
and surburban villas for the men lie elects. 

Then the people are nattered with the sophistry that 
high prices exist because of war and paper money. This 
is stuff and nonsense. Does war exist ? Are silver and 
copper paper money ? Yet try what you can buy cheaper, 
with silver or copper. 

Moreover, they have paper-money in our neighbor- 
ing city of Boston, and a man may live there at half the 
price. The reason is, they have an honest government — 
we have not ! 

" It is a great evil in a State when there is 
not power to curb offenders." — TJ. Emmius* 



EUROPEAN COMMENTS. 

But turn your eyes abroad, Reader! How do we 
suffer there ? 

See what the continental papers say of us : 

[From the Berlin Kreuz-Zeitung.'] 
" There is so much rottenness in the management of 
financial affairs in the United States, that lovers of an 
honest government have long since begun to look with 
contempt upon that unwieldy and motley conglomera- 
tion of commonwealths called by deluded liberal enthu- 
siasts " the great republic." The attention of these en- 
thusiasts is hereby called to the astounding develop- 
ments concerning the immense peculations of certain 

* " De Republica Atheniensium." See tlie " Thesatirrus G-rse- 
carum Antiquitatum," vol. 4, page 434. At Astor Library. 



"WHY VOTE AT ALL ? 15 

high functionaries in New York city, which we publish 
in another column. These functionaries have defrauded 
the city not of hundreds of thousands, but of many 
millions of dollars. Almost the entire press of the city 
calls these high-stationed officials plunderers and thieves, 
and imperiously demands that they should give an ac- 
count of their doings ; but these parties treat that de- 
mand with contempt, because they are backed up by an 
immense mob, which enables them to carry all elections. 
" This subject furnishes to all sagacious men food for 
reflection, and the inference is easily arrived at. Let us 
commend it especially to the ranters in our Chamber, 
who are always ready to draw unpleasant parallels be- 
tween our country and the United States. Let them 
also bear in mind the immense peculations committed in 
France under the mob government presided over by 
Lawyer Gambetta." 

[From the Vienna Vaterland.] 

"How do the JVeue Freie Presse and its followers 
relish these disclosures ? What a lovely state of affairs 
in the best, nay the only true republic ! We suppose 
the most rabid Prussian could not wish poor France a 
worse fate than to imitate American institutions in every 
particular. From what we can gather from American 
letters, New York has been plundered more mercilessly 
by her chosen leaders, than Paris was by the greedy rob- 
bers of the Commune." 

The Paris Gaulois seems to have special information 
about the public frauds. It estimates the whole amount 
that was embezzled at several hundred millions of dol- 
lars, and comments on the subject in a manner decidedly 
hostile to republican institutions. 



16 WHY VOTE AT ALL ? 

The Pesth Lloyd says that " for a long time past it 
has been disgusted with American affairs. Honest func- 
tionaries there are a rarity. High and low both seem 
to be equally intent upon filling their pockets from the 
public treasury, principally to have money enough for 
purchasing votes for a re-election." 

[From the Augsburger Post-Zeitung.~\ 
" The laws of the American republic are such as to 
render the deserved punishment of these men (the pub- 
lic plunderers) a matter of considerable difficulty — nay, 
almost an impossibility ; the more so as the judges are 
all politicians, and elected by the ignorant rabble. So 
the plunderers seem entirely unconcerned at their fate, 
and defy the honest part of the community. The whole 
thing is sickening. Let us thank God that it coidd never 
happen under our institutions? 

Blush;, New Yorkers, blush ! The redder, the better ! 
Here is fair encouragement for Republican principles 
abroad. 

Reflect — if this continues — how will American secu- 
rities sell in the markets of the world ? Where will 
our credit be, in the next decade ? And our honor — 
pshaw ! Swept to the winds ! 

" Will your public grievances redress them- 
selves ? Will- corruption and venality die away 
of course, or will they rather spread wider and 
wider, and take still deeper root, till at last it 
will become impossible to eradicate them ? "— 
Bargli* 

* Political Disquisitions, A. D. 1775, vol. 3, page 269. 



WHY VOTE AT ALL? 17 



REFORM. 

Perhaps no word in the language is more often upon 
the" lips of New Yorkers, to-day, but who can tell us 
what it means ? Who has studied its derivation ? 

Quietly ask any friend you meet along the street, 
Reader. You will utterly confound him. " A conun- 
drum," he will say, " I give it up." 

Any man who smiles is frankly forgiven; but let 
him smile who will. Such is the melancholy fact. But 
if difficult to find a man who can give the meaning of 
" Reform," how much more puzzling still, to point out 
the pathway to it. Huge public meetings have gathered 
and perspired about it. Journals have fretted and fumed 
over it. Grave Committees have wrinkled seventy 
foreheads at it ; and Philosophers have thought much, 
and said nothing. Divines have preached. Lawyers 
have turned over dusty volumes. Merchants have 
growled and Citizens have groaned. Here is a mighty 
fuss, and for all the world [with profound reverence be 
it said], it reminds one of some old buffer with a terri- 
ble gout in his great toe. He growls at every thing, and 
everybody, save only the agreeable causes, which pro- 
duced the gout. He never abuses these. 

For the time being palliatives are applied — he feels 
easier, and calls it " Reform .; " but the causes go on, and 
he carries his gout to the grave. 

This is New York, of to-day, to the letter. Here 
are the scattered rays of light, focused on the point of 
a pin. 

Gentle Reader, come with me — let us bend our puz- 
zled heads calmly over the pages of our old school- 
friends, Worcester and Webster. 



18 WHY VOTE AT ALL ? 

DERIVATION OP REFORM. 

Worcester says : Reform is derived from the Latin re, 
again, and formo, to form. It signifies, to amend — 
to restore — " to change, or return to a former good 
state? 

Webster says : Reform — " to form again — to create or 
shape anew — to change from worse to better, as to 
reform a profligate man? 

It is therefore clear, than when we turn present bad 
rulers out of office, and call it " reform," we fairly cheat 
and befog ourselves. That is "relief" not " reform? 
Misuse ©f words creates confusion, and makes the Pub- 
lic miss its aim. Call things by right names, and a man 
can understand. But what is the use of cheating our- 
selves? 

Reformers beat air, unless the term reform shall be 
clearly comprehended by the public mind. When we 
look upon reform for what it is : "a return to a former 
good state" it seems to bring the crime of public disor- 
der home to every individual, where it belongs. When 
reform is thought to mean nothing but relief then it 
lays the public crime only at the consciences of corrupt 
rulers, where it does not belong. A man might just as 
consistently lay his watch outside the front door, and 
take no blame to himself that it presently disappeared. 

Government is only a precautionary measure, after all. 
It would never be needed, if all men were good. There- 
fore, corrupt rulers, under purely elective governments, 
like ours, are merely the effect of a cause, not the cause 
itself. They are a sort of eruption on the outside, show- 
ing disease within. Let us proceed frankly to investi- 



WHY VOTE AT ALL ? 19 

gate the causes of corruption, that we may know how 
to cure the disease itself. 

Popular clamor ascribes corruption to various causes. 
Logic suggests, consider these first — for light is produced 
by the absence of darkness. Confessed ignorance is the 
primary step to actual knowledge. He who confesses 
himself mistaken, fast approaches the truth. 



Among the popular causes assigned is 

THE FOREIGN ELEMENT. 

Much has been said about the city being governed 
by the " Foreign Element." If this be true, n<5 reason 
appears for it, save the decline of American patriotism 
and American spirit. The general opinion seems to be 
that the foreign element is numerically stronger. But 
this is not the truth. The foreign population is 25 per 
cent, in the minority. Turn to the "Report of the 
Ninth Census of the United States," page 366 : — 
Population of New York City, Native born, 523,198 
" " " " " Foreign lorn, 419,094 

Of the foreign-born citizens, 202,000 are Irish, and 
151,000 are Germans. 

Those who fear damage from the influx of foreign 
emigrants, allege that the industrious go West — the 
lazy and vagabond stay here. This is only partly true. 
But suppose they do ? In a few years, their deaths will 
relieve us, if nothing else. 

" Experience has taught us, Conscript Fa- 
thers, that the wisest laws and the best exam- 
ples of virtue owe their origin to the actual 



20 WHY VOTE AT ALL? 

commission of crimes and misdemeanors." — 
Speech of P. Thrasea* 

It is a curious fact that the two most remarkable 
nations of history arose from an ignoble beginning. 
Home, under Romulus, with a congregation of outlaws, 
slaves, vagabonds and thieves — England, by the con- 
quest of a French bastard, at the head of an armed 
banditti. Yet, by good government, and public virtue, 
these nations rose to the front ranks of honor and dis- 
tinction. 

" So that, as loose administration corrupts 
any society of men, a wise, steady and strict 
government will, in time, reform a country, let 
its manners have been ever so depraved." t 

The " Foreign Element ! " the " Foreign Element ! " 
Here is the great bug-bear of the modern growler. 
But what should we do without it ? Let facts be sub- 
mitted for candid inspection : — 

First : It forms four-ninths of our population. Without 
it, therefore, our city would be reduced to nearly 
half its size. 
Second: It is of the very bone and sinew of the city. 
Third: As a body, it is energetic, patriotic, law-abiding, 

liberty-loving. 
Fourth : It does the bulk of the city's manual labor. 
Fifth : [Most wonderful of all] it exemplifies the high- 
est order of the city's genius. 
Here are the proofs, Reader : — 
Our Leading Lawyer, . . . .An Irishman. 

* The Annals of Tacitus, page 279. 
f Burgh's Political Disquisitions. 



WHY VOTE AT ALL? 21 

Our Leading Merchant, . . . An Irishman. 

" Divine, .... A Scotchman. 

" Painter, ... A German. 

" Most successful Journalist, . . A Scotchman. 

A proud endorsement, this, on native talent in the 
Metropolis of America ! How much further the hu- 
miliating analysis might be carried, let any New Yorker 
investigate who pleases. The writer, for his part, has 
had enough of it. But should an open view of these 
facts tend to arouse American youth from the mental 
inactivity into which it seems to have sunk, since Wash- 
ington, Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, Clay and Webster, 
may Heaven be praised.* 

Again, the question arises : how long would it take 
for the American race to run out altogether, but for the 
influx of hardy foreigners, and intermarriage with lusty 
and prolific races ? Examine any native family, where 
marriages, for four generations back, have been purely 
American. The figures are generally startling. The 
writer's family is a case in point. His grandmother 
gloried in eleven children ; his mother seven, his sister 
only two. Nay, numerous as the family is, there is not 
a son or daughter, of the present generation, having 
over two children. 

Let Americans, generally, consult the family records ; 
and refrain from denunciation of the Foreign Element. 
Truth is not always pleasant, but it may be profitable to 
men of sense ; and it will prevail. 

" He that rebuke th a man, afterwards shall 

* American talent is not dead. Such, an idea is preposterous. 
It only slumbers. Arouse it — cultivate it : it will take first rank, 
and astonish the world. 



22 WHY VOTE AT ALL? 

find more favor than he that flattereth with the 
tongue." — King Solomon* 

No man doubts but that, amongst the foreign ele- 
ment, there are many scamps and rascals, much of igno- 
rance and crime. But the vast majority is all the other 
way. And the true Reformer will find it so. There- 
fore, Reader, here is not the cause of public corruption. 

" Every act of authority of one man" [or 
body of men], " over another , for which there 
is not an absolute necessity, is tyrannical."! 



Another cause of public corruption is declared to be 

UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE. 
Thus, great hue and cry is raised against that prin- 
ciple. One constantly hears good men, thinking men, 
men of sense, making such remarks as these : " Oh ! 
this system of government is a failure" — "Universal 
suffrage is a farce " — " We shall soon be compelled to 
return to kingly government." 

" Kingly government," indeed ! One would think 
the world's history lost, or passed forever from the 
memories of men. One would believe, to hear men talk, 
that the record of kingly government pictured a golden 
age — an era of peace and purity, of honesty and joy; 
that the lives of people, under that form, were a smooth 
and even tenor of unmixed felicity. Consult the record, 
Reader, of any monarchical government, since history 
was written, to find such illusions dissolve like dreams. 

* Proverbs, chap. 28, yerse 23. 

f Beccaria, Crimes and Punishment?, page 10. 



WHY VOTE AT ALL? 23 

Not three centuries ago, our forefathers fled from 
monarchy, three thousand miles across the seas. Not 
one century since, the monster, stretching its iron arm 
over the ocean, sought again to enslave them, but was 
beaten back by the nation's might. 

The argument against democratic government first 
supposes the people corrupt — plunderers of their own 
property — and then creates an ideal good man as King, 
selected from this corrupt whole, who is never to steal 
other people's property. A manifest absurdity. 

Imagine this country ruled by a Dionysius of Syra- 
cuse, an Alexander of Macedon, or a Caligula of Rome. 
Imagine the history of the Jewish monarchies repeated 
here. Imagine Egyptian, Persian, Spanish, French, 
English or German monarchical records written in the 
future of America. Our children's children would 
thank us for the bloody heritage, methinks. 

Be assured, Reader, universal suffrage is not the 
cause of public corruption. On the contrary, 'tis the 
chiefest enemy corruption has. This rests upon the 
ground that self-preservation is the first law of nature. 



Another pronounced cause of corruption is that the 

WHOLE COMMUNITY IS CORRUPT. 

It is said that corruption permeates the entire body 
corporate — nay, that it runs through our system — polit- 
cal, social — like the veins of a leaf, reaching from centre 
to outer edge. 

The popular declaration is : " Every man has his 
price " — " Commission " is the public by-word. But 
these expressions are not true in fact. Everybody knows 



24 WHY VOTE AT ALL? 

them false. Mankind [taking cue from Mr. Darwin] is 
a sort of high order of monkey. It chats and re-chats 
the sounds it hears.* Not one man in a hundred care- 
fully restrains his life from uttering popular errors. 
Thus, by constant repetition, they are quickly swallowed 
whole [by general acquiescence], and come to be con- 
sidered facts. 

What stuff and nonsense to pronounce the whole 
community corrupt. This, of all the reasons given, is 
the weakest and silliest yet. 

Is it not prudent to consider the danger to the public 
good, arising out of this vile habit of wholesale denun- 
ciation ? It makes the sound of fraud familiar, and ren- 
ders men so distrustful of one another that it is wholly 
impracticable to fuse and organize the better elements 
of society. Even the " Committee of Seventy " was ma- 
ligned by honest and reasonable men. The writer speaks 
from knowledge of facts, for he was daily called on to 
stand defender to the virtue of that honorable commit- 
tee ; and this because it is the fashion to malign every- 
body. Rogues like nothing better than to render honest 
men suspicious of one another ; then they stand an even 
chance to be trusted themselves. 

Does any man of common sense suppose that the 
honest elements can ever be united, while every man in 
the community habitually looks on every other man as 
a thief? and yet such is substantially the case. An all- 
pervading Suspicion, rooted on the public mind, is 
gnawing at the roots of Society. 

I It is hoped that sensible men will have done with 
this weak and suicidal fashion. 

It is as easy to get out of it, as it was to get into it. 

* The writer often, finds himself tripping in this respect. 



WHY VOTE AT ALL ? 25 

" Be the situation of any private person 
prosperous and fine as his heart can wish — if 
his country be ruined, he himself must neces- 
sarily be involved in that ruin. But he that is 
unfortunate, in a nourishing community, may 
soon catch hold of expedients of redress." — 
Oration of Pericles* 

The three principal causes generally assigned for the 
advent of the monster Corruption, have thus been duly 
considered. The judgment of the Reader is left to de- 
clare what force they have. 

One other cause assigned is the corruptionist himself. 
It is declared, but for him, all would be well. In simple 
terms, the owner opens his treasures to the robber, and 
then declares : " I didn't do it." How could the corrup- 
tionist be elected, without the people's consent — open, 
on the part of those who worked and voted for him ; 
tacit, on the part of those who worked and voted, not 
at all? 

The people may, if they please, follow a golden two- 
fold rule : to work and vote always for men known to 
be good, and against men known to be bad. 

But if, perchance, a sheep in wolf's clothing occa- 
sionally gets into power, by cheating the people, they 
may, under our wise constitutions, adopt the ingenious 
rule of the merchant : " When a man cheats me the first 
time, that's his fault — when the second time, that's my 
fault." 

" A State must be weak, or its government 

* Thucydides, Book 2. 



26 WHY VOTE AT ALL ? 

incapable, when one desperado is too mighty 
for the laws." — Burgh.* 



We now come to a serious consideration of the real 
cause itself, and that is the 

CRIME OF NEGLECT. 

"Rebuke a wise man, and he will love t7iee."j 

Here is a negative crime, instead of a positive, but 
is it less a crime for that ? Divine laws punish it, if 
human laws do not. 

Business-men of New York — come hither with your 
metaphysical blades — split hairs with us on the following 
propositions : How much juster a man is he who com- 
mits the crime of " neglect, 11 leading to fatal results, on 
the one hand — than he who commits the crime of " as- 
sault" leading to fatal results on the other ? What stays 
the hand of the neglecter ? What impels the hand of 
the assaulter ? Answer — Imagined self-interest, or pas- 
sion. 

u Those statesmen are inexcusable, in whose 
time any good custom is suffered to go into 
disuetude, or any salutary law to lose its effi- 
ciency.' ' — Burgh.X 

But what shall be thought of a people who, in their 
day, suffer the groundwork of their liberty — the ballot — 
to go into desuetude ? 

* Political Disquisitions, vol. 3, page 18. 

f Proverbs, chap. 9, verse 8. 

% Political Disquisitions, vol. 3, page 210. 



WHY VOTE AT ALL ? 27 

Ye white-haired business-men of New York — ye who 
built this City of Merchants — ye who have listened to 
just applause; We, your sons, charge upon you the 
crime of neglect. We impeach you at the bar of Nature, 
as the first and chiefest cause of the public calamities. 
The crime is with you. Every gray-headed man of you — 
look back over the years gone-by — recall your fitful 
non-performance of public duty, and stand condemned ! 
Each one of you, is of the grand sum-total — the cause 
of corruption to-day. Thirty years ago you were in 
large political majority on the records. Even to-day, 
your numerical power is in the majority — your moral 
power simply grand. But you will not exert it I 

" Virtue, supported with abilities, will al- 
ways be too hard for vice and stupidity. And 
men of parts acting upon principle, will keep 
together, while weak and worthless men will 
quarrel and divide." — Burgh* 

You stand convicted by your own confessions. Sev- 
eral elderly merchants have said to the writer that, dur- 
ing their lives they have often engaged in dialogues like 
the following : " Good-morning, Mr. B. Are you going 
to vote to-day ? " Mr. B. — " No ; I can't spend the time." 
Mr. A — " How can good citizens expect to keep good 
men in office, unless they attend to political duties ? " 
Mr. B. — " How can a man expect his business to thrive, 
who attends to politics ? " Mr. A.— u But, friend B., if 
you don't pay some attention to political duties, you will 
find, by and by, that your taxes will increase." Mr. B. — 
" Well, suppose they do ; I can better afford to pay more 

* Political Disquisitions, vol. 3, page 229. 



28 WHY VOTE AT ALL? 

tax than to neglect my business for politics. Good- 
morning, Mr. A " (Here is sophistry, with a witness), 

Another proof: 

Consult the Red-Book of 1868, pages 91 and 283. 
Population of New York City, census of 1865, 726,386 
Vote " " " " " " " 128,975 

Of which vote : — 

51,500 were Native born. 
77,475 were Foreign born. 

Thus, with a native population much larger than the 
-foreign [as shown in a former page], the foreign vote is 
half as much again as the native.* Instances have been 
related to the writer of American families of six voters 
[a father and five sons] who never even thought of going 
to the polls. 

Is it a marvel, then, that the political phenomenon 
of a majority of native Americans, governed by a 
^minority of foreign emigrants, is presented to the gaze 
of a wondering world, on the spot called Manhattan 
Island? Can history produce the like? And this is 
proud New York ! This the wondrous city of the west- 
ern world, of which Americans boast ! 

Hang your heads, New Yorkers, and blush with con- 
scious shame, for ye have need to blush ! 

" Employing in stations of power and trust 
men of notorious bad characters, is disgracing 
the age in which it was done, for it supposes a 

* The Foreign Vote appears to "be one in five to the popula- 
tion, or about right ; the Native Vote less than one in nine to the 
population, or disgracefully wrong. 



WHY VOTE AT ALL ? 29 

want of better men, and endangers the State. 
— Burgh* 

During the past quarter century, or more, the Busi- 
ness-men of New York, engrossed in money-making, 
have collectively and systematically kicked across the 
thresholds of their doors, as of no account, the most 
precious privileges of the ballot — privileges for which 
their fathers gave life and property. Nay, within sight 
of our doors — yonder on the neighboring hillsides of 
Westchester — our forefathers left their bloody tracks in 
the snows, fighting for these privileges of the ballot : 
election of representatives — taxation — and a voice in the 
expenditure of the public money. And we, their de- 
generate sons, are found surrendering these privileges, 
with perfect indifference, to a minority of foreigners. 
Was ever the like ? Pause here, Reader, sadly to drop 
a tear on the grave of departed Patriotism. 

" There is no surer mark that a government 
is near its utter destruction, than when the 
people are observed to be careless and uncon- 
cerned at a time when they are pressed and 
encompassed with dangers of the highest nature. 
This state lethargy is such an apopleptic symp- 
tom, as is commonly the forerunner of death to 
the body-politic." — Dr. Chas. Davenant.'t 

• Of course the poor emigrants, coming to our shores 
from foreign lands, finding these rich legacies cast into 

* Political Disquisitions, vol. 3, page 57. 

f " An Essay upon the Balance of Power " — Works of, in 5 
vols., vol. 3, page 299. 



30 WHY VOTE AT ALL ? 

the streets as trash [like the broken toys of a spoiled 
child], have taken them up and carried them away. Of 
course they have. Who could expect otherwise ? And 
we charge them with the crime of theft. We, who tossed 
these privileges away ! We, who loll in comfortable 
parlors, when business is over, and never do a stroke of 
public duty — we expect to gather in the fruits of others' 
labor. 

It cannot be done ! God's law of nature is against it ! 
Can the farmer look for a harvest of wheat, where he 
never planted a single seed ? Can lazy good men look 
for public virtues and benefits, where they never do a 
stroke of public duty ? Do men of sense expect that 
the public mill can run without the motive-power of 
personal interest ? And when that power is all supplied 
by other men, do they who sit idly by, expect the privi- 
lege of gathering in the proceeds ? Has the penalty of 
Eden : " By the sweat of thy brow," been suspended for 
Americans only? 

" The inertia and timidity of the people are 
the great difficulties in the way of every re- 
formation." — Burgh* 

Reader, do you want further proof? Step into the 
store or warehouse of any merchant here — endeavor to 
get his ear or attention to any matter unconnected with 
his business. What will be the result ? " Oh ! I'm too 
busy to-day, Sir ; I cannot undertake outside matters, to 
the detriment of my business." Presently, corruption 
seizes on his treasure, and he starts up aghast ! 

* Political Disquisitions — vol. 3, page 378. 



WHY VOTE AT ALL? 31 

" Nothing is troublesome that we do wil- 
lingly. ; ' — Jefferson. * 

The citizen, of fifty years ago, considered it a first 
duty to vote. Nay, it was a dear-bought privilege — one 
to surrender but with " life, fortune, and sacred honor." 

The native New Yorker of to-day, grown indolent, 
careless, and indifferent, can hardly be dragged to a local 
election. The contrast is sad, indeed, and smells rank 
to Heaven of impending dissolution. 

Alas ! to what a humiliating point has the political 
indolence of our fathers brought us. 'Tis nature's law 
that he can never be truly great, who prefers present 
ease and indulgence to future honor and glory. 

Honest government and public confidence are the 
only thongs which bind the differing elements of soci- 
ety together. Cut these, and the City will drop asun- 
der like the peoples at Babel. Dishonest government 
has lost more good residents to the City, in the last ten 
years, than all other causes put together, death not ex- 
cepted. 'Tis a well-known fact ! 

" It is one of the least menacing symptoms 
of an age prone to degeneracy, that the minds 
of men become perplexed in the discernment 
of merit, as much as the spirit becomes enfee- 
bled in conduct, and the heart misled in the 
choice of its objects. The care of mere for- 
tune is supposed to constitute wisdom, retire- 
ment from public affairs, and real indifference 

* Randall's Life of — vol. 3, page 525. 



32 WHY VOTE AT ALL? 

to mankind receive the applause of moderation 
and virtue." — Prof. Ferguson of Edinburgh* 



GRATIFYING NEWS FROM THE DIREC- 
TORY. 

The earnest Reformer may not unlikely find inter- 
esting information in the City Directory. 

JFor instance, the writer desired to ascertain the num- 
ber of Business-men in the City. Under this head are 
included wholesale and retail merchants — manufacturers 
— professional-men, etc., etc. [In fact; we are nearly 
all business-men]. He opened this year's directory in 
four places, as follows : 

On page 469 he counted 73 names. 
" " 861 " " 53 " 

" " 956 " " 44 " 
u u 1094 a u 60 u 



Total, 230 

Take the average one-fourth — 57 



No. of pages in the Directory, 1308 
Multiply by the above average of 57 

Gives a total of 74,556 names. 

Place the City's vote at 130,000, and a clear majority 
is thus shown, in favor of the Business-men alone. It is 
not claimed that these figures are more than approxi- 
mately correct. They are only given with a view to 
make a forcible exhibit. But they do not include what 
may be termed the laboring class. And how many hon- 

* History Civil Society, page 392. 



WHY VOTE AT ALL? 33 

est mechanics, porters, and laborers can each reader of 
this pamphlet name : men who will go in a body for re- 
form ? 

The influence of Business-men amongst the laboring 
classes is immense, and when Reform is properly under- 
stood and organized, it will be rightly used. 

" The manners of the upper ranks descend 
to the lowest. — When M. Antonius was accused, 
his servant bore the torture with heroic forti- 
tude." * 



FIGURES IN COMPARISON. 

A glance at facts will quickly convince New Yorkers 

of the city's numerical power : 

First: It contains nearly three times the population 
which the whole State contained, at the first census 
in 1790. 

Second: There are to-day, twenty-one States, in the 
Union, each having a population smaller than New 
York City. Here they are : Arkansas, California, 
Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana^ 
Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ne- 
braska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, 
Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, 
Vermont, and West Virginia. 
For the proof of this, the reader is referred to the 

" Ninth Census Report of the United States," page 3. 

The facts are suggestive ! 

Third: We have six States, in the Union, whose popu- 

* Ancient Universal History, vol. 12, page 453. 

2* 



34 WHY VOTE AT ALL? 

lations, combined, are not so great as New York 
City's alone. Here they are: JVew Hampshire, 
Rhode Island, Delaicare, Nebraska, Nevada, and 
Oregon. These six States, together, glory in twelve 
distinguished Senators in the controlling branch of 
the National Government; while New York City, 
with a larger population, only claims the smaller 
part of a single Senator. Here is minority govern- 
ment with a vengeance. And it seems a pretty 
large share of the aristocratic element, in our form 
- of government. Still, it is well enough, perhaps, 

and nobody complains. 
But let us examine the lower house of Congress. 
It is claimed this wide difference is offset there. What 
are the facts ? Take the same six States named above. 
With a combined population of 917,075 they possess 
nine Representatives, while New York City, with a 
larger population, [942,292] possesses only six. See 
Red-Book of New York, 1871, page 219. Here is food 
for thought, New Yorkers. Perchance Reform may 
find good work to do even at Washington. 

" A man who has power, is but too seldom 
at the pains to use argument. — Lord Barthurst* 



A CHOICE OF DESTINIES. 

Reflecting men should take this proposition to heart : 
New York City has a choice of three destinies. 

First : An honest, efficient government. 

Second: A government wholly dishonest and cor- 
rupt. 

* Debates of Lords, vol. 5, page 152. 



WHY VOTE AT ALL ? 35 

Third: One, like the present, made up of half and 
half. 

The first requires a genuine, emphatic public effort 
on the part of New York Business-men collectively. 
The second requires their utter neglect and indifference. 
The third, what they are now doing, neither one thing 
nor the other. The choice must and will be made, and it 
is but a step in either direction — with honor on one side 
— ruin on the other. 

Public duties are like other duties — the effect will 
prove the cause. When well-performed, the result is 
good; when half-performed, the result is indifferent; 
when badly performed, the result is evil. 

The logic of the whole affair is this : that, as the mer- 
cantile energy of the business-man built this City's 
material prosperity, so his public indolence will ruin 
it politically. Political and Business interests must go 
hand in hand. They will perish asunder, like the head 
and body cut in two. What is the use of acquiring 
property, and then electing bad rulers to steal it ? And 
yet we do precisely this, when, by devoting all our time 
to business-matters, none is left for public duties. For 
our absence from local primary and poll elections, leaves 
the whole machinery of government in the hands of 
irresponsible men. Into this slough of public indiffer- 
ence have the merchants of New York been sinking, 
deeper and deeper for thirty years. And we, their sons, 
see the sad results. 

As a corrupt source will blacken any river to its 
mouth, so a pure and crystal source will wash that river 
clean, in time. In like manner, an incorrupt majority 
will wash any government clean, as we shall see with 
ours. 



36 WHY VOTE AT ALL? 

" Whatever is amiss in the manners of the 
people, either proceeds from' bad example of 
the great, or may be cured by the good." # 



ONE STEP TO TYRANNY. 

If the great central mass of our citizens, wholly en- 
grossed with private affairs, are quiescent in public mat- 
ters, how easy for any shrewd diplomatist, rising in our 
midst, to organize a system by which the municipal gov- 
ernment could be shaped into almost any form desired. 

Those who doubt it had better study the inner work- 
ings of Athenian, Sicilian and Roman democracies. Let 
the wise-heads talk about the checks and counter-checks 
of our republican systems as much as they please. It is 
true our forefathers did wonders in erecting the Consti- 
tutions. But experience has taught how difficult it is to 
form a constitution, or a law, through which [to use the 
common phrase] a horse and cart may not be driven. 
Besides, our patriotic grandsires cannot rise out of an- 
tique graves to perform the public duties of indolent, 
unappreciative children. 

Good government, after all, lies in execution, rather 
than in written law. Otherwise the admirable " Laws of 
God " would have produced an eternal Paradise on 
Earth. Want of execution is the municipal crime. Our 
native citizens must arouse from their fatal sleep of in- 
difference — else Reform will always die in the womb ; 
and good government itself will soon be doomed to 
eternal slumber in the unrelenting grave. A public 

* Maxim of Edward, King of Portugal 



WHY VOTE AT ALL? 37 

heritage, the same as a private, may soon dissolve, for 
want of care and attention. 

The fear of Tyranny, for Americans, is laughed at 
in these times. But laughter should turn to tears now ; 
for if, under our systems, the public money be stolen, 
with impunity, why not the public liberties too ? If the 
inertia of the people permits the one, 'twill not be long 
before it will allow the other. If the people put rogues 
again and again, into high places, so they will tyrants 
also. Where a nation makes money its god, it worships 
none other, neither the " Lord of Hosts," nor the " god 
of liberty." 

" Power, like water, is ever working its way, 
and wherever it can find or make an opening, 
is altogether as prone to overflow whatever is 
subject to it." — Benj. Franklin* 



ABOLISH PARTY IN THE CITY. 

Reform, to be effective, must fight its battles under 
non-partisan banners. The writer of this pamphlet is a 
Democrat — his best friend a staunch Republican. Do 
not drive us apart, Reformer ! We should battle side 
by side, in the ranks of Reform ; and we are but a com- 
mon example of native New York. Take your inspira- 
tion from last November. What event more thrilling 
to the patriots' heart than the spectacle presented to his 
gaze in the Fall of 1871 ? The youth of the city, then, 
rich and poor alike, were banded together under the 
name of " Young Men's Municipal Reform Association." 

* Works of, in 10 vols., by Jared Sparks, vol. 3, page 429. 



38 WHY VOTE AT ALL ? 

Youth of all parties, and all positions, fighting shoulder 
to shoulder against corruption, bore the brunt of the 
battle, and a signal victory was won. Truly the spirit 
of '76 was breathed upon the city then, and Heaven 
smiled at the spectacle. Let it be repeated in Novem- 
ber of seventy-two. 

There should be no division of the people into par- 
ties here, save into " Honest " and " Dishonest." Then 
might the people range themselves accordingly. 

" It is an old and vulgar error, that opposi- 
tion and party are necessary in a free State. 
# # * * Nobody ever thought an opposition 
necessary in a private family, where the heads 
have nothing but the good of the family in 
view. * # # Take away the jewel of par- 
ties, the emolumentary invitations to the fatal 
and mischievous strife, in which every victory 
is a loss to the country." — Burgh* 

It needs but a native, fair, honest, efficient govern- 
ment to make this City of the western world the bright- 
est jewel in the diadem of nations. If we have no suffi- 
cient native talent to rule us, let us make rulers from 
good men amongst our foreign-born citizens. There are 
certainly many such. But that any necessity exists for 
the election of foreign-born scamps and rascals is pre- 
posterous. Reason and figures are dead against it. 

" It would be ridiculous to throw away rea- 
son upon those banditti [those public enemies 

* Political Disquisitions, vol. 3, page 331. 



WHY VOTE AT ALL? 39 

to human society] who go into Parliament with 
the execrable intention of carrying to market 
a country which trusted them with its all." — 
F. Gordon.* 

Organized action in Reform has hitherto been de- 
ferred till the eve of an election — time is then short, and 
seems to be wasted in preparation. 



TRUE POWER. 

It is not so mnch in numbers, as in imity, that true 
power lies. History teems with events to prove this 
position. 'Tis the same in politics as in war. But what 
proofs do New Yorkers require, outside the immediate 
history of their own times ? Unity of the few, inaction 
of the many — this has ruled New York ! 

"When we peruse attentively the history 
of despotism, we sometimes behold with aston- 
ishment a handful of men keeping a whole na- 
tion in awe. # * * For what is the voice 
of the people, if every one is to continue si- 
lent. — Burgh.'t 

Let us imagine a thousand honest young patriots in 
New York City, properly organized into a permanent 
society, with its branches in the wards. Give them five 
years, and where then would be the power to resist their 
moral weight ? In that short space of time, would be 

* Cato's Letters, vol. 3, page 286. 

f Political Disquisitions, vol. 3, page 379. 



40 WHY VOTE AT ALL? 

found amongst them Writers, Thinkers, Speakers, Work- 
ers. Such an organization, magnet-like, would attract 
all the merit of the City. Pshaw ! what is the use of 
argument here ? Conviction needs no argument ! 

But those who expect to behold matured " Reform " 
springing up in a season, would plant an acorn to-day, 
and look for an oak to-morrow. In other words, they 
expect impossibilities. 

Again, the Reformer must never forget he is an 
Amputator. He must constantly listen for groans and 
abuse. Let him bring to mind, continually, the intrepid 
words of our grand old patriot, John Adams. Here 
they are : — 

"Upon common theatres, indeed, the ap- 
plause of the audience is of more importance 
to the actors than their own approbation. 
But upon the stage of life, while Conscience 
claps, let the world hiss." — John Adams* 

In a democracy, one of the surest bulwarks of public 
safety is a thorough training of the native youth in history, 
composition and oratory, t History is said to be philos- 
ophy teaching by exanrple. Composition and Oratory 
are the arts of informing and persuading men. History 
teaches what has occurred. Writing and Speaking 
herald this information to the masses. When the native 
youth are proficient in these, they naturally seek exercise 
in public affairs. But when simply trained to money- 

* Works of, in 10 vols., by Ch. Pr. Adams, vol. 1, page 30. 

f Those who doubt this truth, may settle their minds by 
a careful perusal of Spartan ethics and policy, in the pages of 
that inimitable work : History of Greece, by Geo. Grote, 10 vols. 



WHY VOTE AT. ALL ? 41 

getting (and nothing else), as seems to be the ease in our 
community, can we expect other results than those we 
sadly see, and bitterly feel ? 

" Exorbitant riches in the hands of indi- 
viduals, while the public treasures are ex- 
hausted, like swelled legs with an emaciated 
body, are the symptoms of decline in a State." 
Burgh.* 

Let the citizens decide whether New York, with its 
debt doubled in half a decade, savors of " treasures ex- 
hausted." 



CAUSE OF FAILURE. 

Reformers have hitherto failed of sweeping results, 
because their labors have been on the outer circle, in- 
stead of the inner. Palliatives are applied outside, in- 
stead of purgatives inside. This will never do. First 
find out the disease, then strike at its root. Work from 
the inside, out. Plans of reform should be Centrifugal, 
not Centripetal. Let common sense support this prin- 
ciple. 

The argument runs thus : Disease cannot be cured, 
save by removing the cause. When the cause departs, 
the effect follows after. This is cure. This is Reform. 

Thus, with public corruption, remove the cause and 
the effect will cease. There is no other mode of cure. 
Everything else is bare relief. 

If the people of New York decline the effort re- 

* Political Disquisitions, vol. 3, page 187. 



42 WHY VOTE AT ALL ? 

quired, u Corruption" will stalk on in seven-league boots, 
till the city is financially, morally ruined. 

Facts are stubborn things, Citizens. You must ac- 
cept the truth. Keep on trying your palliatives, if you 
will, but you might as well hold up a saucer to stay the 
winds. 

" Habitual sloth and indulgence, the same 
in public matters as in private life, is not 
immediately felt. on every occasion of neglect, 
but shows itself in the general result." — De- 
mosthenes.* 



EMOLUMENTS OF OFFICE. 

"The whole -world is not enough for one fantastic voluptuary ; 
while a very little supplies nature." 

The outrageous bulks to which commissions and 
emoluments of office have swollen in certain municipal 
places, calls loudly for reform — if for no other reason, 
still because money is thus put into the hands of office- 
holders, in abundance, with which to buy themselves 
again and again into power. Thus do the people [gen- 
erous souls] supply money for the purpose of oppressing 
themselves. 

Serving one's Country has been compared to serving 
God. It is simply what every man ought to do — those 
who are rich, without compensation; those who are 
poor, for as little as may be. ^ 

When a man has served his Country all in his power, 

* Fourth Philippic. 



WHY VOTE AT ALL ? 43 

he has still only performed his duty. Public officers 
should receive recompense as clergymen do, because 
they have no means to live without. We wonder how 
Heaven regards rich ministers and rich statesmen, work- 
ing for salaries. As if a man must be paid in yellow 
dross for doing his duty to his God and his Country. 

General Washington declined any pay in his day. 
Oh that we had such patriots now ! 

" To a luxurious man, the more you give the 
more methods of expense he will always in- 
vent ; and money to an avaricious man is like 
water to a dropsical ; the more you give, the 
more he will desire." — Robert Vyner* 

One of the strongest arguments against large com- 
pensation to public servants, is found in the strict hon- 
esty of Army and Navy Officers, as a Class. Corrup- 
tion, amongst these gentlemen, may be pronounced 
almost unheard of. They regard it with horror and dis- 
gust. To buy a Regular Officer with money, would as 
soon be thought of as to corrupt a Clergyman. The 
writer speaks from knowledge of facts, having in the 
army, at least, some of his most intimate and warmest 
friendships. In the Army and Navy pay is so small as 
utterly to preclude the forming of extravagant and lux- 
urious habits. This is considered most salutary in its 
effects on the morals of officers. 

Would to Heaven such praise could justly be be- 
stowed upon our Civil Officers. Were they paid in like 
proportion, would not results be better ? Let the ex- 
periment be tried in New York City. Large compen- 

* Speech 1774 — Aim. Debates Commons, Vol. 1, Page 313. 



44 WHY VOTE AT ALL ? 

sation is a wretched failure here, everybody knows. 
Test its opj:>osite. 

" One public post, and a man's private 
concerns are business enough for any one man."* 



WHERE ARE THE BENEFITS? 

The Business man is challenged to exhibit a single 
lasting benefit derived from neglect of public duty. If 
neither profit, honor or duty are in it, why do it ? The 
experiment is tried, the penalties are felt and seen. But 
where are the benefits ? 

Like the parent and his offspring, children grow to 
ignore the father who neglected them. Reciprocity is 
public as well as private. 

Where, then, are the arguments favoring neglect of 
public duty — where the faintest excuse ? Come forth, 
Logicians, and testify. Stand ye on the lofty Kun- 
chinginga — sweep the horizon with your logical tele- 
scopes — turn ye from the rising to the setting sun, you 
cannot discover the bigness of a pin's-head, in the logical 
circle, to excuse or support this negative crime. Duty 
and Interest, Logic and Figures are dead against it. 

The whole proposition is built on sand, with a base 
of bubbles, walls of tissue, and a dome of mist. One 
logical puff, and away it goes ! 

" Have you not observed, said Socrates, that 
all men willingly submit to those whom they 
believe the most skilful ; in sickness, to the best 



King John 3d, of Portugal. 



WHY VOTE AT ALL ? 45 

physician ; in a storm, to the best pilot ; and in 
agriculture, to him whom they consider as the 
best husbandman." 



INTERMINGLING OF CLASSES POLITI- 
CALLY. 

If it be possible to arouse the wealthier classes, col- 
lectively, out of a chronic lethargy regarding public 
duty — if that element of society shall haply be prevailed 
on [in its rising generation] to undertake active part in 
the work of politics, a potent result will be witnessed in 
the heightened tone of society generally. The richer 
and better-educated youth will come in contact with the 
poorer classes on something like a footing of equality. 
This will tend, directly, to strike down the fatal wall of 
division between classes — that most destructive engine 
of the public harmony. 

The ornate qualities of the one class will commingle 
with the practical qualities of the other — checking, on 
the one side — elevating, on the other. Thus the classes 
will learn to know and appreciate one another better. 
The final result will embody that complete and symmet- 
rical Society, designed by our forefathers, and hailed by 
humanitarians in every age. 

How many earnest lovers of free-government, abroad, 
are looking with anxious and hopeful hearts to the " Re- 
form movement " in ISTew York City. Taunted with our 
failures, and struck dumb with sorrow at the present 
aspect, they are hanging their heads in silence to-day. 

France, generous France, our firmest friend in '76, 

* Xenophon's Memorabilia. 



46 WHY VOTE AT ALL ? 

she too is looking to us for argument and practice. 
Her guiding star, in this day of public trial, is across the 
Atlantic, here ! 

" Those commonwealths have been most du- 
rable which have oftenest reformed, and re- 
composed themselves accordingly to their first 
institution, for by these means they repair the 
breaches, and counter- work the natural efiect 
of time." — FytrHs Speech in Parliament 1628.* 



FAILURE TO AROUSE THE BUSINESS-MEN. 

Some say: "the argument is admitted — the fault 
does lie with the Business-men; but the difficulty is to 
arouse them. This cannot be done. The trial has oft 
been made, with continued failure." 

The answer to all this is — that Reform will get no ac- 
tive aid from the Fathers and Grandfathers. Long- 
standing habit takes too. firm hold on men to admit of 
any hope in the Elders of ISTew York, in this regard. 
The ruts in which they run are frozen stiff and deep. 
You will never get them out of comfortable parlors, and 
lazy habits, to do the work of Patriots. They may aid 
and encourage, but they will hardly work. The work- 
ing patriots of the Revolution were young men — so 
must the working patriots of Reform be. 

Start any system of Reform, without recognizing this 
plain fact, and failure will be the inevitable result. But the 
the growing sons of New York, warned in time of their 
fathers' errors, will they do the work f 

* Parliamentary History. Vol. 8 — Page 173. 



WHY VOTE AT ALL? 47 

Our gray-headed fathers will soon pass away — to a 
broader scene than this little spot ! A few more fleeting 
years, and they are gone forever ! Their days are num- 
bered even now ! Their chairs will soon be vacant by 
the fireside. Tears will be dropped upon their lifeless 
clay — mementos cherished in homes left vacant. The 
hand of love will raise monuments, and inscribe their 
merits on enduring stone. Green grass and flowers will 
smile, in the sunlight, over their graves. But we shall 
mourn their loss forever ! 

And then ! young men of New York, this great muni- 
cipal heritage will pass to you in full. Are you pre- 
pared for the responsibility? You cannot escape the 
question. Answer ye who know ! 

" No great thing was ever done, but by such 
as have preferred the love of their country, to 
all other considerations." — Br. D'Avenant. 



TO THE LADIES OF NEW YORK. 

The question of Reform is not to be narrowed with- 
in the little limits of the Political arena. It is broader, 
grander, loftier than that. The groundwork of Society 
— the public morals — are in danger. And this spreads 
abroad the question to Morality itself. It implores the 
aid of Churchmen and Philosophers — Humanitarians 
and Statesmen. Kay ! it invokes the virtuous endeavors 
of the Mothers and Daughters— those architects of a 
nation's heroes. It calls for that gentle influence, with- 

Political and Commercial Works of Dr. Charles D'Avenant — 
5 vols. 



48 WHY VOTE AT ALL ? 

out whose countenance, Sin could never show its face 
abroad — or Corruption <find a spot to plant its cloven 
foot. Satan j)lied this power in Paradise, and a World 
was humbled into dust. 

Oh ! Mothers and Daughters of "New York — what a 
work is yours to do ! Know ye not your power ? Your 
simple word should make a cause triumphant. You 
may constitute Reform the fashion. You may render it 
infamy— as it surely is — for husbands, brothers, lovers 
to sit idly by your side, while Virtue and Liberty are 
dying for want of supj)ort. 

In spite of all that jealousy utters against the New 
York ladies — in spite of the charge : " that they are 
absorbed in dress and fashion," the world is chal- 
lenged to produce more capable women. Their adapta- 
bility is wonderful, from the heiress to the shop-girl. 
And Reform can ask no higher boon from Heaven, than 
to render the ladies enthusiastic in its cause. For they 
will rouse lazy mankind to the quick, and victory will 
come in half the time. 

TLe ladies do not realize their public responsibility. For 
no political maxim rests on sounder principles than this : 
that the foremost sign of impending ruin to a State, may 
be seen in the wanton extravagance and manners of its 
matrons and maidens. 

" To love something more than one's self — 
that is the secret of all that is great ; to know 
how to live for others — that is the aim of all 
noble souls." * 

* " An Attic Philosopher in Paris." From the French of 
Emile Souvestre, Page 116. 



WHY VOTE AT ALL ? 49 

A TWO-FOLD DISEASE. 

The disease in New York is two-fold : Extravagance 
and Neglect of Public Duty. Or, want of frugality in 
the masses, on one side, — non-attendance to the ballot by 
business-men, on the other. Let us suppose these cor- 
rected — reformed. What should we see ? 

First : the poorer classes, by saving part of their 
wages [like our German friends] would gradually be- 
come property-holders, i. e., citizens with solid local in- 
terests. 

Second: our business-men, having local property in- 
terests already, and being in the majority now, would, 
by attending to public duties, place good men in office, 
instead of bad In ten years the change in New York 
would be miraculous. Class distinctions would melt 
away. Peace, Order, and Prosperity would reign. 
Heaven would smile its glad assent. Friends of demo- 
cratic government would raise their drooping faces the 
world over. New York would be the pride and example 
of the whole country — as it ought to be — as Sparta, 
Athens, and Pome were, in their day. Peader, is this 
Utopian ? Not a bit of it. 

Kind Heaven grant it ! and let the men of this gen- 
eration be laid to rest in the midst of God's perfect work 
on Earth ! Oh New Yorker ! What a destiny is thine 
if you will but work it out. Pshaw ! money is dust be- 
side it. 

To the citizen who finds no joy in serving either his 
God or his Country gratis, what a scene of ashes life 
must be ? Let us regard it : First : a rattle ! Second : 
a rocking-horse ! Third : a puff of romance ! Fourth: 
money! Fifth: more money ! Sixth: the grave! 
3 



50 WHY VOTE AT ALL? 

" What avarice, in an old man, can propose 
to itself I cannot conceive, for can any thing 
be more absurd than, in proportion as less of 
our journey remains, to seek a greater supply 
of provisions." # 



USES OF HISTORY— SACRED AND PRO- 
FANE. 

What is History, but the essence of life, extracted 
to order, and preserved in libraries ? The entire ground 
is here surveyed, and laid out by systematic rule. 'Tis 
the truthful record of the acts of men. 

Here are your arithmetical and geometrical prob- 
lems of human existence [worked out to perfect solu- 
tion] from the cradle to the grave. He who would learn 
to act wisely and well, let him read history. Why 
spend life in solving problems, already solved to perfec- 
tion there ? Search the universal record, Readei 

" For every one that asketh, receive th ; and 
he that seeketh, findeth ; and to him that knock- 
eth, it shall be opened." — Sermon on the Mount. ,T 

It is something wonderful to witness the general de- 
testation, hate, and ignominy heaped upon traitors and 
detected plunderers of public money, throughout the 
record of history. The student is amazed to find how 
men can copy examples leading direct to ruin. Is it 
that such copyists never read history ? or that they are 

* Cicero on Old Age. 

f Matthew— Chap. 7, Verse 8. 



WHY VOTE AT ALL? 51 

incapable of understanding its lessons ? or, do they, like 
the murderer [forgetting that " murder will out"] vainly 
hope to escape detection ? Or, alas ! what is the reason 
for all this madness and folly, on the part of public men ? 

History teaches that " Fraud " is a weed of hasty 
growth. Like the mullen-stalk, it comes to maturity 
quickly — as a mullen-stalk its life is short. Like other 
weeds it thrives best amongst good plants. Therefore, 
the war against it is perpetual. Fraud is forever treated 
with scorn and ignominy, by all the world and its fel- 
lows too. 

" Honesty " may be likened to an oak. Its growth 
to maturity is very slow, but the older it is, the stronger 
it is. It lasts for many seasons. And when it attains to 
full maturity, all the weeds of a summer cannot choke 
it. It is blessed and honored in its age by friends and 
foes alike. Thus says history. How can any man pause 
in choice between these two ? 

" Nothing is more essentially necessary to 
the establishment of manners in a State, than 
that all persons employed in stations of power 
and trust be men of exemplary characters. 
1 Let Valerian be Censor,' said the Uoman Sen- 
ators, ' who has no fault of his own.' " — Burgh* 



DOOM OF THE WICKED. 

The just need never fret over long-deferred, appar- 
ent non-punishment of wicked men. To punish evil is 
the prerogative of Heaven, and 'tis never neglected. 

* Political Disquisitions, vol. 3, page 10. 



52 WHY VOTE AT ALL ? 

Heaven seems over-patient sometimes, but we do not 
always see its scourging hand. Great villains are often 
permitted to rise high, that their tumble, being greater, 
may certainly destroy. Little tumbles never kill — they 
only hurt ! They are sent by the kind consideration of 
benignant Heaven as punishments for little crimes. 
They serve to admonish, and often lead the wayward 
sinner back to virtue. Blessed be Heaven for the price- 
less privilege of little falls. Great falls are for the un- 
relenting sinner. Thus fell Lucifer and his host, from 
Heaven to hell ! 

Reader, you need not travel out of this City, and 
this Age, for prominent proofs of Heaven's relentless 
doom to great rogues. Who would take their tragic 
deaths, their seething consciences, and universal detes- 
tation, for all the treasures of Manhattan Island ? 

" 'Till Heaven and earth pass, one jot or one 
tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all 
be fulfilled. — Sermon on the Mount* 

Ye who scoff at written law, take a glance at Na- 
ture, from the planets to the mite on earth. Look above 
you, and about you, for the Truth. What does the still 
small voice of Nature say ? Order! Order! Order! 

Let the globe but float from its circle, and approach 
the sun a tithe of its fixed distance, and Ether will be 
blackened by its ashes in the twinkling of an eye. Let 
the moth fly from its native element into the blaze of a 
candle, and death is the penalty. A fish out of water — 
a bird out of air, alike meet their doom. Order is the 
law — pain and destruction the penalty. 

* Matthew, Chap. 5, verse 18. 



WHY VOTE AT ALL? 53 

So with men who defiantly walk away from fixed 
principles of Nature's God — men who lie, and cheat, and 
steal, and murder. Deviation leads to pain and ruin. It 
is inevitable ! 

Ye who believe it not, go search the pages of histo- 
ry, where the lives of men are recorded for three thou- 
sand years. And be convinced. 

There you will find, from the hovel to the throne, 
when impious man persistently defies the natural laws 
of God, his doom may be read, branded on his face, by 
those who run. Satan sets his withering mark, and the 
miscreant is doomed. 'Tis but a matter of fleeting time. 

It needs no prophet to point out men in this City, 
nay in the whole country, walking in high places to- day 
whose doom is circumscribed within the narrow limits 
of a single decade. 

Mark the prediction — ye who think ! You will fiud 
them presently sinking out of sight, like pebbles dropped 
into unfathomed ocean. Oh ! blind, ignorant, and impi- 
ous men ! Where are your God-given faculties of sense ? 
Why choose ye the idiot's life, instead of the hero's ? 

" Whoever amongst us habituates himself 
to reflect most deeply and accurately on each 
several thing about which he is considering, he 
will make the nearest approach to the knowl- 
edge of it." — Plato* 

* From the Phaedo. 



54 WHY VOTE AT ALL? 



WHAT IS A REPRESENTATIVE ? 

As the whole people of New York cannot assemble 
at Albany, " in one room," to make laws and declare 
taxes, it becomes necessary to send some neighbor or 
friend to act for them. Thus, one man is chosen by a 
number of people dwelling in a neighborhood. This 
chosen citizen is sent because the people trust him. 
They freely put into his care their property, their wel- 
fare, their honor. His charge is the highest in the land. 
It is the sacred trust of many men and many women 
combined. 

What would be thought of a friend who — confided 
with our individual affairs — should basely barter those 
interests away, or put half of what he received into his 
own pocket ? 

We can hardly imagine a man sent to the Legislature 
in the past ten years, so base as to cheat his dearest, most 
confiding friend. [The writer has known many mem- 
bers, of each annual Legislature, since the year 1862, 
and he cannot think of one so base.] 

Yet the perfidy of such a man is multiplied a thou- 
sand fold by the corrupt representative. He cheats, not 
one, but many thousands of confiding friends. Nay •' 
worse than that, his example [being lifted to an emi- 
nence] becomes a public example, and corrupts the very 
State itself. 

If there be a crime deep-dyed, and cursed, above an- 
other, it is Corruption in a Public-man. False to his 
Trust, to his Oath, to Himself, to his Friend, his Neigh- 
bor, his Country, his God, to Every thing — he stands the 
Symbol and the Prototype of Sin ! 



WHY VOTE AT ALL? 55 

He is Satan's Captain- General, Prime-Minister, Chief 
Abettor. He is the Representative of the Devil, not 
of the People ; and the curses of the People be upon 
his head forever ! His ill-gotten gains will prove a ruin 
to himself, his example a destruction to those who fol- 
low him. Ask History if this be true ! 

Think of 160 Senators and members of Assembly 
going to Albany every year to cheat and rob 4,382,758* 
confiding friends and countrymen. What a Spectacle, 
if true ! 

" Such men would be worse than cannibals, 
who only eat their enemies to satisfy their hun- 
ger, and do not sell and betray their own 
Countrymen who trust them with the protec- 
tion of their Property and Persons." t 



A MONSTROUS ABSURDITY. 

'Tis a monstrous absurdity, in our systems, that, with 
all the money paid by the people, for good government, 
the private citizen is left to prosecute corporate and in- 
dividual scamps, at his own expense. 

The first principle of government is to protect the 
citizen, in life and property. When it fails of this, 'tis 
worse than useless. We only consent, by taxation, to 
surrender part of our property yearly, that the rest may 
be fairly protected. 

A great bulwark of good government is speedy pun- 

* Report Ninth Census U. S., table 1, page 3. 
f Oato's Letters, vol. 3, page 285. 



56 WHY VOTE AT ALL? 

ishment for the dissolute and bad. Government ought 
to do this, at its own expense, with speedy justice. It 
should not be left to the suffering citizen, for he is either 
too poor to bear it, or it's magnitude appalls him. Thus 
nothing is often done, and corruption stalks on. 

What so common in ISTew York as this excuse for 
compromise with, or non-punishment of, rogues : " that 
it is the cheaper way f " 

The continuance of such monstrous principles, will 
lead us to the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, i. e., de- 
struction by universal corruption in the end. The con- 
clusion is irresistible, and cannot be denied. 

" Whenever opposition is made to an appar- 
ently wise reformation, let the people look that 
corruption be not at the bottom." — Burgh* 



A SINGLE CALAMITY. 

While the mind rapturously dwells and lingers on 
the innumerable blessings of Reform, to all citizens ; only 
a single calamity to any can be imagined, and that to but 
very few. Certain men, of both parties, would thereaf- 
ter be compelled to drink beer or water, instead of 
champagne. Poor fellows ! The generous heart of the 
public would deeply feel for them, knowing how severe 
these sudden changes are. 

Some stomachs would certainly be astonished by the 
introduction of water, and this might occasion spasms. 
But, after all, physiology teaches it would be better for 

* Political Disquisitions, yoI. 3, page 827. 



WHY VOTE AT ALL? 57 

them in the end. Of course it would. Reform is salu 
tary for every man. 

" Political philosophy lays this down as a 
fundaniental and incontestible maxim, that all 
the most flourishing states owed their ruin, soon- 
er or later, to the effects of luxury; and all 
history Irom the origin of mankind, confirms 
by this truth the evidence of facts to the high- 
est degree of demonstration." — Montague* 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 

Just at this period, Heaven seems graciously to have 
arranged public matters to the hand of the Reformer. 

Stiff party lines, hitherto so unrelaxing, are levelled 
and confused. Politics have swept around the circle. 
The Republican Ticket is headed by a Democrat — the 
Democratic ticket by a life-long Republican. Politicians 
are troubled — perplexed. The public looks on and 
ponders. 

]STow is the time for the people to make a local move- 
ment for Reform, not for Relief. Give the movement 
some fit title — put forward men in the city known to be 
good, and go to the people for support. Heaven and the 
People are with you, Reformer. And the World looks 
on! 

" All Europe is at this moment beholding 
us, and looking for the issue of this controversy ; 

* On Ancient Republics, page 221. 

3* 



58 WHY VOTE AT ALL? 

those who hate free institutions, with malig- 
nant hope ; those who love them, with deep 
anxiety and shivering fear." — Daniel Webster* 

Reader, note you the signs of the times ? Regard 
you the troubled looks of men ? Noisy dissension has 
departed. The faces of men are fixed in anxious thought. 
Where are the wonted gayety, the careless indifference 
of the Business-man? 

The Face of the Public is the Politician's Sky. 

Wise pilots, in the political boat, had better not ig- 
nore yonder small cloud of " Reform " in the distant 
horizon. The voice of Nature cries — Beware ! Anon, 
that little speck will overcast the sky ! The mutterings 
of the storm have even now been heard, and old marin- 
ers may be seen [by those who look] reefing in their 
sails. 

Look to your tackle, Politicians I 

* Speech Feb. 16, 1833, on " The Constitution not a ^Compact 
between Sovereign States." 



WHY VOTE AT ALL? 59 



AN EARNEST APPEAL. 

The writer appeals to the Committee of Seventy — . 
to Wealthy Citizens generally — to Merchants and Man- 
ufacturers, to circulate this pamphlet among the People. 
It can do no harm. 

Is it a wonder we have " Strikes," and spasmodic 
convulsions of the working people ? Every effect has a 
cause. 

They, in reality bear the burden of taxation. It falls 
upon them with an iron hand. They groan under it. 
We know that they do. 

Look at the prices they pay for Rent, Fuel, Clothes, 
Hats, Shoes, Bread, Meat, Vegetables, Fruit. This is 
taxation, with no escape but privation. 

See how patiently they toil for us the livelong day — 
in the sweltering heat — mid clouds of dust — under a 
burning sun ; while we are protected by thick walls and 
pleasant offices. 

See them crowded in narrow tenements — breathing 
fetid atmospheres, while we reside in spacious palaces 
and gorgeous homes. 

Behold them dropping in our streets, under this sum- 
mer's scorching sun, while we are driving in splendid 
equipages, with tinted sun-shades, along the sea-side 
beach, or amidst vernal freshness, and mountain scenery ; 
listening to the songs of birds, or the murmur of water- 
falls. 

Think you not they are human, as well as we ? Think 
you not Heaven regards us all alike ? It is no argument 



69 WHY VOTE AT ALL ? 

to point, in contrast, to the evils of the poor abroad. 
Americans ignore foreign barbarities. 

We owe a duty to our emigrant laborers. The Cre- 
ator has graciously sent them to us. They should be 
better instructed on moral and political topics by simple 
pamphlet literature. And this is the duty of the Rich 
and the Educated. You will accomplish more towards 
redressing the evils of Strikes, High Prices, Discontent, 
in this way, than in any other. A people must be led by 
logic, not driven by force. 

It is simple common sense. Will the laborer vote 
to double his rent and his living expenses, except through 
gross misapprehension ? 

Instead of widening the breach by angry denuncia- 
tions, let the employer show his men that interests are 
reciprocal. This may be done by studying the laborer's 
good, and by teaching him the logic of voting for honest 
representatives. 

Show the laborer how he pays the taxes, and he will 
look who he votes for. 

" Where no counsel is, the people fall."— 
King Solomon* 

* Proverbs, Chap. 11, verse 14 



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